Centimeter is a quiet Swedish band that, for almost ten years, has been content to record sad and beautiful songs in its native tongue. “Motorhead” is Centimeter’s inaugural English-language single and the first off its upcoming release, 70, which came out April 3. It’s something of a coming out from under the safety blanket for the band. “Changing from Swedish lyrics to English was kind of liberating but also an inspiring challenge. I enjoy playing with words and we always start with the lyrics, even in English. No lyric, no song,” says singer Johan Landin. Of the creative process, he says: “We talked about how we function as human beings and why the four of us are playing together. This album is a huge turning point for us.” The video for “Motorhead” goes a long way towards capturing just that unsettling moment of transition. It’s filmed on a high-speed Phantom camera on a cold November day in Stockholm, with youthful bodies feigning summertime elation leap through fireworks—all in hypnotic slow motion. Like the song, there’s a below-the-surface foreboding, a simultaneous ecstasy and melancholy: live in the moment because summer, like love, won’t last forever.
